4/23/12

I have never owned or even tried a Rubic's cube. From what I have seen, its hard to do. I guess I have been shy about getting involved with this pastime because I didn't want to appear stupid... so I never did it. The "artist" in the picture has his or her own solution.... cheat. That seems to be the predominate way of approaching problems today... cheating. Trouble at work... use your influence to hurt your opponent. Marriage problems... find someone else. Can't do your homework or pass the test... cheat. Don't feel like working... go on public assistance. The list is endless, but there is a solution and here it is....

WEB: Proverbs 14:12. There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

Don't do things according to your own whims. Try following what God has said and you may find it harder for awhile, but in the end you will be glad you did. This brings to mind what is said by God in the book of Isaiah:

WEB: Isaiah 1:18. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool...."

So, in the above picture, God would remove all the cheating paint and give you a fresh start. You still have to solve the problem however!!!!!

Deu
1:1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the
Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah over against Suph, between
Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab.

Deu
1:2 It is eleven days' journey
from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea.

Deu
1:3 It happened in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the
first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel,
according to all that Yahweh had given him in commandment to them;

Deu
1:4 after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in
Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei.

Deu
1:5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare
this law, saying,

Deu
1:6 Yahweh our God spoke to us in Horeb, saying, You have lived long
enough in this mountain:

Deu
1:7 turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the
Amorites, and to all the places
near there, in the Arabah, in the hill country, and in the lowland,
and in the South, and by the seashore, the land of the Canaanites,
and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

Deu
1:8 Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the
land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, to give to them and to their seed after them.

Deu
1:9 I spoke to you at that time, saying, I am not able to bear you
myself alone:

Deu
1:10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are this
day as the stars of the sky for multitude.

Deu
1:11 Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as
many as you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!

Deu
1:12 How can I myself alone bear your encumbrance, and your burden,
and your strife?

Deu
1:13 Take wise men of understanding and well known according to your
tribes, and I will make them heads over you.

Deu
1:14 You answered me, and said, The thing which you have spoken is
good for us
to do.

Deu
1:15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise men, and known, and
made them heads over you, captains of thousands, and captains of
hundreds, and captains of fifties, and captains of tens, and
officers, according to your tribes.

Deu
1:16 I commanded your judges at that time, saying, Hear the
causes between your brothers, and judge
righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is
living with him.

Deu
1:17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the
small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of
man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for
you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.

Deu
1:18 I commanded you at that time all the things which you should
do.

Deu
1:19 We traveled from Horeb, and went through all that great and
terrible wilderness which you saw, by the way to the hill country of
the Amorites, as Yahweh our God commanded us; and we came to Kadesh
Barnea.

Deu
1:20 I said to you, You are come to the hill country of the
Amorites, which Yahweh our God gives to us.

Deu
1:21 Behold, Yahweh your God has set the land before you: go up,
take possession, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has spoken to
you; don't be afraid, neither be dismayed.

Deu
1:22 You came near to me everyone of you, and said, Let us send men
before us, that they may search the land for us, and bring us word
again of the way by which we must go up, and the cities to which we
shall come.

Deu
1:23 The thing pleased me well; and I took twelve men of you, one
man for every tribe:

Deu
1:24 and they turned and went up into the hill country, and came to
the valley of Eshcol, and spied it out.

Deu
1:25 They took of the fruit of the land in their hands, and brought
it down to us, and brought us word again, and said, It is a good land
which Yahweh our God gives to us.

Deu
1:26 Yet you wouldn't go up, but rebelled against the commandment of
Yahweh your God:

Deu
1:27 and you murmured in your tents, and said, Because Yahweh hated
us, he has brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us
into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.

Deu
1:28 Where are we going up? our brothers have made our heart to
melt, saying, The people are greater and taller than we; the cities
are great and fortified up to the sky; and moreover we have seen the
sons of the Anakim there.

Deu
1:29 Then I said to you, Don't dread, neither be afraid of them.

Deu
1:30 Yahweh your God who goes before you, he will fight for you,
according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,

Deu
1:31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how that Yahweh your
God bore you, as a man does bear his son, in all the way that you
went, until you came to this place.

Deu
1:32 Yet in this thing you didn't believe Yahweh your God,

Deu
1:33 who went before you in the way, to seek you out a place to
pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you
should go, and in the cloud by day.

Deu
1:34 Yahweh heard the voice of your words, and was angry, and swore,
saying,

Deu
1:35 Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation
see the good land, which I swore to give to your fathers,

Deu
1:36 save Caleb the son of Jephunneh: he shall see it; and to him
will I give the land that he has trodden on, and to his children,
because he has wholly followed Yahweh.

Deu
1:37 Also Yahweh was angry with me for your sakes, saying, You also
shall not go in there:

Deu
1:38 Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in
there: encourage you him; for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.

Deu
1:39 Moreover your little ones, whom you said should be a prey, and
your children, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, they
shall go in there, and to them will I give it, and they shall possess
it.

Deu
1:40 But as for you, turn, and take your journey into the wilderness
by the way to the Red Sea.

Deu
1:41 Then you answered and said to me, We have sinned against
Yahweh, we will go up and fight, according to all that Yahweh our God
commanded us. You girded on every man his weapons of war, and were
forward to go up into the hill country.

Deu
1:42 Yahweh said to me, Tell them, Don't go up, neither fight; for I
am not among you; lest you be struck before your enemies.

Deu
1:43 So I spoke to you, and you didn't listen; but you rebelled
against the commandment of Yahweh, and were presumptuous, and went up
into the hill country.

Deu
1:44 The Amorites, who lived in that hill country, came out against
you, and chased you, as bees do, and beat you down in Seir, even to
Hormah.

Deu
1:45 You returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn't listen
to your voice, nor gave ear to you.

Deu
1:46 So you abode in Kadesh many days, according to the days that
you abode there.

Deu
2:1 Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the
way to the Red Sea, as Yahweh spoke to me; and we encircled Mount
Seir many days.

Deu
2:2 Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

Deu
2:3 You have encircled this mountain long enough. Turn northward.

Deu
2:4 Command the people, saying, You are to pass through the border
of your brothers the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they
will be afraid of you: take good heed to yourselves therefore;

Deu
2:5 don't contend with them; for I will not give you of their land,
no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I
have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession.

Deu
2:6 You shall purchase food of them for money, that you may eat; and
you shall also buy water of them for money, that you may drink.

Deu
2:7 For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your
hand; he has known your walking through this great wilderness: these
forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have lacked
nothing.

Deu
2:8 So we passed by from our brothers the children of Esau, who
dwell in Seir, from the way of the Arabah from Elath and from Ezion
Geber. We turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of Moab.

Deu
2:9 Yahweh said to me, Don't bother Moab, neither contend with them
in battle; for I will not give you of his land for a possession;
because I have given Ar to the children of Lot for a possession.

Deu
2:10 (The Emim lived therein before, a people great, and many, and
tall, as the Anakim:

Deu
2:11 these also are accounted Rephaim, as the Anakim; but the
Moabites call them Emim.

Deu
2:12 The Horites also lived in Seir before, but the children of Esau
succeeded them; and they destroyed them from before them, and lived
in their place; as Israel did to the land of his possession, which
Yahweh gave to them.)

Deu
2:13 Now rise up, and cross over the brook Zered. We went over the
brook Zered.

Deu
2:14 The days in which we came from Kadesh Barnea, until we were
come over the brook Zered, were thirty-eight years; until all the
generation of the men of war were consumed from the midst of the
camp, as Yahweh swore to them.

Deu
2:15 Moreover the hand of Yahweh was against them, to destroy them
from the midst of the camp, until they were consumed.

Deu
2:16 So it happened, when all the men of war were consumed and dead
from among the people,

Deu
2:17 that Yahweh spoke to me, saying,

Deu
2:18 You are this day to pass over Ar, the border of Moab:

Deu
2:19 and when you come near over against the children of Ammon,
don't bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you of
the land of the children of Ammon for a possession; because I have
given it to the children of Lot for a possession.

Deu
2:20 (That also is accounted a land of Rephaim: Rephaim lived
therein before; but the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,

Deu
2:21 a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh
destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in
their place;

Deu
2:22 as he did for the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir, when he
destroyed the Horites from before them; and they succeeded them, and
lived in their place even to this day:

Deu
2:23 and the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the
Caphtorim, who came forth out of Caphtor, destroyed them, and lived
in their place.)

Deu
2:24 Rise up, take your journey, and pass over the valley of the
Arnon: behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of
Heshbon, and his land; begin to possess it, and contend with him in
battle.

Deu
2:25 This day will I begin to put the dread of you and the fear of
you on the peoples who are under the whole sky, who shall hear the
report of you, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of you.

Deu
2:26 I sent messengers out of the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon
king of Heshbon with words of peace, saying,

Deu
2:27 Let me pass through your land: I will go along by the highway,
I will turn neither to the right hand nor to the left.

Deu
2:28 You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat; and give me
water for money, that I may drink: only let me pass through on my
feet,

Deu
2:29 as the children of Esau who dwell in Seir, and the Moabites who
dwell in Ar, did to me; until I shall pass over the Jordan into the
land which Yahweh our God gives us.

Deu
2:30 But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him; for
Yahweh your God hardened his spirit, and made his heart obstinate,
that he might deliver him into your hand, as at this day.

Deu
2:31 Yahweh said to me, Behold, I have begun to deliver up Sihon and
his land before you: begin to possess, that you may inherit his land.

Deu
2:32 Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to
battle at Jahaz.

Deu
2:33 Yahweh our God delivered him up before us; and we struck him,
and his sons, and all his people.

Deu
2:34 We took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed
every inhabited city, with the women and the little ones; we left
none remaining:

Deu
2:35 only the livestock we took for a prey to ourselves, with the
spoil of the cities which we had taken.

Deu
2:36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of the Arnon,
and from
the city that is in the valley, even to Gilead, there was not a city
too high for us; Yahweh our God delivered up all before us:

Deu
2:37 only to the land of the children of Ammon you didn't come near;
all the side of the river Jabbok, and the cities of the hill country,
and wherever Yahweh our God forbade us.

"THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW"
Chapter Five
Beginning in this chapter, Matthew records the "Sermon On The Mount".
The theme of the sermon is "The kingdom of heaven" (cf. Mt 4:17;
5:3,10,19-20; 6:10,33; 7:21). Jesus began with "The Beatitudes,"
describing the character and blessedness of those who would be citizens
of the kingdom (1-12) and illustrating their relation to world as salt
and light (13-16). Clarifying His own relationship with the Law, Jesus
stressed how our righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and
Pharisees (17-20) following with a series of contrasts between the oral
interpretations of the Law and conduct expected of His disciples
(21-48).
POINTS TO PONDER
* The meaning of the phrase: "the kingdom of heaven"
* The blessedness of those in the kingdom, and their relationship to
the world
* How our righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and
Pharisees
REVIEW QUESTIONS1) What are the main points of this chapter?
- The beatitudes - Mt 5:1-12
- Salt and light - Mt 5:13-16
- Jesus and the Law - Mt 5:17-20
- Interpretations of the Law versus kingdom righteousness - Mt
5:21-482) What do the beatitudes describe? (3-12)
- The character and blessedness of the citizens of the kingdom
3) How are citizens of the kingdom to relate to the world? (13-16)
- As the salt of the earth and the light of the world
4) What was Jesus’ relation to the Law of Moses? (17-18)
- He came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it
5) What does Jesus expect of those who would be citizens of the kingdom?
(20)
- Righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees
6) List the five subjects whose interpretations are contrasted in this
chapter (21-48)
- Murder, adultery, oaths, retaliation, love
7) What phrases illustrate the contrast? (21-22,27-28,31-32,33-34,38-39,
43-44)
- "You have heard that it was said..." (not "It is written...")
- "But I say to you..."
8) Then what contrast is being made with these five subjects?
- The oral interpretation and application of the Law versus the
teaching of Jesus